Minelab Explorer Forum

OK guys and gals ....I'm looking for some feedback on the coils that you guys have used on your Explorer's .....I know some of you hunt parks and relic hunt , while some of you hunt beaches ......I'm not looking for any particular type of hunting as much as I'm looking to see WHAT COIL impressed you the most of any other coil you have had on your Explorer ? Tell me the coil , the type of hunting you did with it , and what impressed you about the coil ....THanks guys .....

EX II once I put on the Sunray X-8 I never put the stock coil back on again. The X-8 was effective in trashy areas and was deep enough to sniff the silvers. I saw no need to get larger coil or use the stock coil.

Jim-----IMO, the four best coils (in progression of size) for the Explorer or Etrac are: X-5---X-8---11" Pro stock coil---13" Ultimate.-----I made that decision after using many coils over the years on both the Explorers & Etracs.-----------Del

Quotesynthnut
I like the pro coil on the Etrac .....Haven't tied it on the Explorer yet .....Thanks guys

I'd like to get an X-8 ..... I have the X-5 and it's a sniffer for sure , but would like to go a little bit bigger ...Thanks

11 inch SE Pro coil on the Explorer is possibly the best designed coil ever for that size. I have built coils, I could not top Minelab on that coil no matter how much money I spent they hit it out of the park on weight, slim design, rigidity, and its a tough coil that's held up to several years of detecting.

I don't see a 13 inch coil being larger enough to warrant the expense vs the 11 inch, you won't get that much more depth. The 15 inch WOT coil is a beast if you can swing the weight and will go deeper enough to be worth the effort. I swung a WOT for 2 straight years, as soon as I went back to the stock coil the WOT depth finds ended.

Note, Minelab uses (or did) rather expensive woven Litz magnet wire for the Transmit winding, while aftermarket coil makers did not, they just used single strand plane jane magnet wire. Coils seem simple at first glance, but they are spooky irritating devices. Have you checked your coil on an oscilloscope to see if its balanced? A tiny nudge during construction can knock them out of balance, years ago I tested my coils, all were balanced except the one that never seemed to perform well it was out of whack by quite a ways and probably should have been scrapped at the factory.

Del,
I've seen you on this forum for as long as I can remember ....I'm sure you've been thru a few coils ..... Your line up looks good to me !!..... I was looking for an Ultimate , and ended up getting a 10x12 Detech SEF instead ....The price was right , and after a lot of investigating , there was not enough of a difference between it and the Ultimate to warrant the price difference ..... I can remember a few years back when there were a bunch of shootouts between 10x12 and the 12 x15 SEF coils and the 10 x 12 pretty much won out in many tests ...... I've always been impressed with the Sunray products over the years ..... Thanks for your input ....

Charles ,

No oscilloscope experience here !!..... I know we have discussed you trying to build various coil's .....They are not as simple as they look for sure !!..... At my age , I"m not sure that I want to dig THAT deep to warrant me getting a 15" WOT coil .....and the 13 inch Ultimate , while light in weight , I think I will also pass on ..... I find it interesting that the 11 inch Pro coil is so well regarded .....not that it's not a great coil !!..... For the hunting I do with my Etrac the 11 inch Pro coil has more than surprised me in the past .....A lot of nice Silver with that Etrac w/Pro coil ..... Out of all the detectors I have owned over the years , one that I will NEVER do without is a Minelab Sovereign .... I sold off all but my XS and it still has the old 8" Coinsearch coil that I have LOVED over the years that came with it ..... This coil and detector combo sounds like a LOUD TROMBONE when it hits !!..... It's got to be one of the sweetest sounding detectors that I have ever swung with this coil !!..... It's not waterproof though so I have to stay in the dry sand with it ......Ya can't have everything !!..... Good to know that I already have coils that are on you guys lists so that when I finish this detector , I'll be ready to rock .....Thanks guys

Quotesynthnut
Del,
I've seen you on this forum for as long as I can remember ....I'm sure you've been thru a few coils ..... Your line up looks good to me !!..... I was looking for an Ultimate , and ended up getting a 10x12 Detech SEF instead ....The price was right , and after a lot of investigating , there was not enough of a difference between it and the Ultimate to warrant the price difference ..... I can remember a few years back when there were a bunch of shootouts between 10x12 and the 12 x15 SEF coils and the 10 x 12 pretty much won out in many tests ...... I've always been impressed with the Sunray products over the years ..... Thanks for your input ....

Charles ,

No oscilloscope experience here !!..... I know we have discussed you trying to build various coil's .....They are not as simple as they look for sure !!..... At my age , I"m not sure that I want to dig THAT deep to warrant me getting a 15" WOT coil .....and the 13 inch Ultimate , while light in weight , I think I will also pass on ..... I find it interesting that the 11 inch Pro coil is so well regarded .....not that it's not a great coil !!..... For the hunting I do with my Etrac the 11 inch Pro coil has more than surprised me in the past .....A lot of nice Silver with that Etrac w/Pro coil ..... Out of all the detectors I have owned over the years , one that I will NEVER do without is a Minelab Sovereign .... I sold off all but my XS and it still has the old 8" Coinsearch coil that I have LOVED over the years that came with it ..... This coil and detector combo sounds like a LOUD TROMBONE when it hits !!..... It's got to be one of the sweetest sounding detectors that I have ever swung with this coil !!..... It's not waterproof though so I have to stay in the dry sand with it ......Ya can't have everything !!..... Good to know that I already have coils that are on you guys lists so that when I finish this detector , I'll be ready to rock .....Thanks guys

Charles-----That's interesting what you are saying about the 15" WOT coil.---I may have to try one.----I got a question though---having used it for 2 straight yrs. & finding deep finds with it--why did you give up on it & go back to the stock coil?------"as soon as I went back to the stock coil the WOT depth finds ended"-------your words, not mine.--------I'm just curious why you didn't stay with it if you were having such good success with it.

QuoteCharles (Upstate NY)
11 inch SE Pro coil on the Explorer is possibly the best designed coil ever for that size. I have built coils, I could not top Minelab on that coil no matter how much money I spent they hit it out of the park on weight, slim design, rigidity, and its a tough coil that's held up to several years of detecting.

I don't see a 13 inch coil being larger enough to warrant the expense vs the 11 inch, you won't get that much more depth. The 15 inch WOT coil is a beast if you can swing the weight and will go deeper enough to be worth the effort. I swung a WOT for 2 straight years, as soon as I went back to the stock coil the WOT depth finds ended.

Note, Minelab uses (or did) rather expensive woven Litz magnet wire for the Transmit winding, while aftermarket coil makers did not, they just used single strand plane jane magnet wire. Coils seem simple at first glance, but they are spooky irritating devices. Have you checked your coil on an oscilloscope to see if its balanced? A tiny nudge during construction can knock them out of balance, years ago I tested my coils, all were balanced except the one that never seemed to perform well it was out of whack by quite a ways and probably should have been scrapped at the factory.

Excellent question...first there's the obvious its so heavy its like swinging a gallon of milk coupled with the Explorer's weight. But more so I was hunting mostly old parks in NY at the time, there were deep targets the 10 inch coil could not reach yes BUT there were significantly more targets that were hiding near iron and trash. So which coil would produce the most finds per hunt, in that area the 10 inch and 8 inch Minelab coils were a better choice, instead of hunting deep hunt co-located targets hiding in the shadow of iron and trash. Also its not just the weight of the 15 inch WOT but the resistance to swinging it in the grass since you want the coils as close to the ground as possible. The 15 inch WOT really needs a second handle on the machine like a weed whacker.

QuoteD&P-OR
Charles-----That's interesting what you are saying about the 15" WOT coil.---I may have to try one.----I got a question though---having used it for 2 straight yrs. & finding deep finds with it--why did you give up on it & go back to the stock coil?------"as soon as I went back to the stock coil the WOT depth finds ended"-------your words, not mine.--------I'm just curious why you didn't stay with it if you were having such good success with it.

QuoteCharles (Upstate NY)
11 inch SE Pro coil on the Explorer is possibly the best designed coil ever for that size. I have built coils, I could not top Minelab on that coil no matter how much money I spent they hit it out of the park on weight, slim design, rigidity, and its a tough coil that's held up to several years of detecting.

I don't see a 13 inch coil being larger enough to warrant the expense vs the 11 inch, you won't get that much more depth. The 15 inch WOT coil is a beast if you can swing the weight and will go deeper enough to be worth the effort. I swung a WOT for 2 straight years, as soon as I went back to the stock coil the WOT depth finds ended.

Note, Minelab uses (or did) rather expensive woven Litz magnet wire for the Transmit winding, while aftermarket coil makers did not, they just used single strand plane jane magnet wire. Coils seem simple at first glance, but they are spooky irritating devices. Have you checked your coil on an oscilloscope to see if its balanced? A tiny nudge during construction can knock them out of balance, years ago I tested my coils, all were balanced except the one that never seemed to perform well it was out of whack by quite a ways and probably should have been scrapped at the factory.

I could NEVER imagine hunting the parks in NYC with a WOT 15 !!...... I pulled my Silver from the parks down there and there was SO MUCH trash to contend with !!....You really needed some great programs on the Etrac or the Explorer to hunt down there with just so discrimination patterns ..... I brought other detectors down there and these parks just ate them for lunch !!..... I just got off the phone with my old hunting buddy who got his Etrac before I got mine .... HIs programs were the cat's a-- to use down there ..... You really had to listen hard as the parks even back then were detected hundreds of times before ......and I'm sure after ......You had to move slow and go over and over the same area and listen for whispers .....Every now and then a Silver would jump out on you and almost take your head off !!..... I haven't been there is years but did just recently get my permit to hunt some of the parks and beaches down there ......

QuoteCharles (Upstate NY)
Excellent question...first there's the obvious its so heavy its like swinging a gallon of milk coupled with the Explorer's weight. But more so I was hunting mostly old parks in NY at the time, there were deep targets the 10 inch coil could not reach yes BUT there were significantly more targets that were hiding near iron and trash. So which coil would produce the most finds per hunt, in that area the 10 inch and 8 inch Minelab coils were a better choice, instead of hunting deep hunt co-located targets hiding in the shadow of iron and trash. Also its not just the weight of the 15 inch WOT but the resistance to swinging it in the grass since you want the coils as close to the ground as possible. The 15 inch WOT really needs a second handle on the machine like a weed whacker.

QuoteD&P-OR
Charles-----That's interesting what you are saying about the 15" WOT coil.---I may have to try one.----I got a question though---having used it for 2 straight yrs. & finding deep finds with it--why did you give up on it & go back to the stock coil?------"as soon as I went back to the stock coil the WOT depth finds ended"-------your words, not mine.--------I'm just curious why you didn't stay with it if you were having such good success with it.

QuoteCharles (Upstate NY)
11 inch SE Pro coil on the Explorer is possibly the best designed coil ever for that size. I have built coils, I could not top Minelab on that coil no matter how much money I spent they hit it out of the park on weight, slim design, rigidity, and its a tough coil that's held up to several years of detecting.

I don't see a 13 inch coil being larger enough to warrant the expense vs the 11 inch, you won't get that much more depth. The 15 inch WOT coil is a beast if you can swing the weight and will go deeper enough to be worth the effort. I swung a WOT for 2 straight years, as soon as I went back to the stock coil the WOT depth finds ended.

Note, Minelab uses (or did) rather expensive woven Litz magnet wire for the Transmit winding, while aftermarket coil makers did not, they just used single strand plane jane magnet wire. Coils seem simple at first glance, but they are spooky irritating devices. Have you checked your coil on an oscilloscope to see if its balanced? A tiny nudge during construction can knock them out of balance, years ago I tested my coils, all were balanced except the one that never seemed to perform well it was out of whack by quite a ways and probably should have been scrapped at the factory.

"Swinging a gallon of milk..."
"Second handle on the machine like a weed whacker..."

My favorites are the 13" Ultimate, the 6x8 SEF, and the Pro coil. I have used several others, but like these three the best, and use them more than any other. The Pro coil is a great all-around coil. The 13" Ultimate is probably a tad deeper than the Pro coil, and really does a surprisingly good job in trash, for such a big coil. The only thing I don't like about the 13" is it is TERRIBLE at IDing nickels, for some reason. I can pick out nickels from within similar trash (beaver tails, etc.) really well with the Pro coil, and the 6x8, but when I try to dig nickels with the 13", I dig a lot of junk. A target hit when using the 13" coil, that would CLEARLY be a nickel on another coil, is most often NOT, with the Ultimate coil. It just does NOT like to ID nickels consistently. Finally, I find the 6x8 to be a really smooth, stable coil, and it is surprisingly deep -- it is ALMOST as deep as the Pro coil for me, and yet better in trash given it's size. If I had to pick only 3 coils, these are the three...

By the way, I will be selling several Explorer coils in the near future, as I'm getting a second Explorer (to have as a backup machine) from a friend this weekend. Along with his Explorer, he is selling me about 8 coils that he has to go with it. I am thinking right now that I will probably keep the three I mentioned above (he, like me, really likes those three coils), but will likely sell at least a few of the rest; the coils I may part with would include a 12" SunRay X-12, a 15" WOT, a 10x12 SEF, and an 18" Excelerator; I may also part with his 5" SunRay X-5, not sure yet. Please send me a PM if any of you are interested in any of these coils.